However, work still needs to get done regardless of who is available. In the case of the Indians, they are working on a re-do.

“Our summer is about giving our young kids a chance to develop,” said Tanaka’s assistant Jon Monti, a former Minooka coach. “We lost eight great seniors who gave us a lot of leadership, and we have little varsity experience back.”

“We’re still learning to play defense like Minooka teams have the last several years,” Monti said. “We’ll be good if we can develop that attitude. We’ll probably be undersized against most of the teams we will play, so toughness will be a huge key.”

So will scoring. The Indians at times last season found a lid on the basket. An example was their finale, a 35-27 loss to Oak Forest in a Class 4A Eisenhower Regional game.

“With the kids we have coming up from last year’s sophomore team, our shooting should be much better,” Monti said. “Lamas, Clemens and both Butlers can shoot it.”

“I think we’re a good shooting team,” Hudson said. “Last season we did have trouble scoring at times. We’ll play more inside to outside this season and I think we will score more.”

Hudson realizes he might be stationed in the post a significant amount of time.

“We have a few guys around 6-2, 6-3, but I’ll be our big man,” he said. “I’ll be in the post a lot and lead the team in that way.”

The Indians will be different. Better? That will be determined later, when all that inexperience has had time to develop.